Talking cricket, writing & Sri Lanka with Booker-winner Shehan Karunatilaka

108406325 EP1: Talking cricket, writing & Sri Lanka with Booker-winner Shehan KarunatilakaShehan Karunatilaka is the winner of the 2022 Booker Prize for his novel The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida. At the Times Litfest 2023, the Sri Lankan author had the audience chuckling with his witty answers to questions from Vikas Singh, executive editor, news, The Times of India. The conversation ranged from cricket to copywriting, from war to the future of Sri Lanka. Also listen: BharatPe Founder Ashneer Grover's Startup-Success Tips Also listen: Why Booker Prize-Winner Shehan Karunatilaka Blames Kurt Cobain Sample a couple of bits from the conversation: Vikas Singh: Your website describes you as a failed cricketer, failed rockstar and a failed vegan. Shehan Karunatika: Yeah, all true! So, I used to bowl left arm Chinaman, left-arm leg-spin as I used to call it. I could bowl a googly, I could pitch one in the right place, but I bowled a lot of full-tosses and got hammered and ended up on the reserves bench. But sitting there I fantasised about being this mythical, great bowler and I think I ended up writing about it 20 years later as Chinaman the Legend of Pradeep Mathew, who was this bowler who never bowled a single full-toss. Failed rockstar – [pointing to his man bun] as you can see I still have the semblance of that, I still travel around with my guitar but it's not for public consumption. The vegan thing I can still work on; I still have time. I think the other things may have eluded me, but with all these failures you end up writing books, or writing books on your failures. All these experiences, how did they work towards making you the writer that you are? I don't know! I guess that’s for other people to say! I think for me, one telling thing was like if you take those examples, you know I was obsessed with cricket as a teenager; when I was in my 20s Sri Lanka won the World Cup and so on. But I would never go and sit in the nets; like Murali used to do for like eight hours a day perfecting the doosra, I'd never do that. Same with playing music; when I had a gig -- when I used to play in bands – I’d practise but I wouldn't pick it up on a daily basis. But I wrote on a daily basis; from teenage years I kept diaries and I wrote down ideas -- for screenplays, videogames, songs, movies… So I think by the time I was in my 30s and this idea for Chinaman came to me -- the idea that the greatest ever cricketer of all time could have been unfortunate enough to have been born in Sri Lanka and been playing in the 80s and therefore was never discovered. That was such a delicious idea. I thought someone should write it and I waited for a year and no one was writing about left-arm leg-spinners in Sri Lanka in 1987. I was working in advertising so I also had a writing-related job, as a copywriter. I started waking up early, like 4 in the morning. I was never a morning person but I would wake up because after 8-9 o'clock chaos starts. And I’d write for 4 hours. After I discovered WG Karunasena, the drunk uncle who's narrating the story, as I got to spend more time with him I quit the job and I did this. Looking back, if I had played guitar every day I probably would have been decent guitarist. But the fact is I wrote every day and I think the thing that you do every day whether you like it or not you become that…. Do listen to the podcast for the entire conversation, and don’t miss the second part, in which Shehan Karunatilaka talks about why his Booker-winning novel was actually published twice in India, with two different titles, and why he does not want to be a spokesperson for anything. Anchor: Jasleen BhallaAudio production: Anil Chauhan 108406326 EP2: ‘You don’t need magic, I think realism is crazy enough’ This is part two of a conversation between Vikas Singh, executive editor, news Times of India, and Booker Prize-winning Sri Lankan writer Shehan Karunatilaka at the Times Litfest 2023. In Part One, Shehan had spoken about being a lapsed cricket fan. In the second part, we continue from where we left off. He talks about how his Booker-winning novel, The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida, went through many rounds of editing and was published twice in India, first as Chats with the Dead. Shehan also talks about the process of writing a book based firmly in the subcontinent for a global audience, and the compromises one has to make. He discusses his book of short stories, The Birth Lottery, and says that they are not a concept album but a collection of stories that were written as entries to many short-story contests and never won anything. He also says it’s an instinct of self-preservation that makes him not take up contemporary topics like the unrest last year in Sri Lanka. Asked if the protests were fertile ground for magic realism, he says: “You don’t need magic, I think realism is crazy enough.” Do listen to the podcast for the entire conversation, and don’t miss the last part, in which Shehan Karunatilaka talks about actually winning the Booker Prize, and also takes questions from the audience. Anchor: Jasleen BhallaAudio production: Anil Chauhan 108406327 EP3: ‘Booker longlist news came when my wife was in a 4-day petrol queue’This is part three of a conversation between Vikas Singh, executive editor, news Times of India, and Booker Prize-winning Sri Lankan writer Shehan Karunatilaka at the Times Litfest 2023. In Part One, Shehan had spoken about being a lapsed cricket fan and in the second part he had spoken about how he steers clear of current topics. This is the final part of that conversation, at the end of which he also takes questions from the audience. Also Listen: Nobel Winner Abdulrazzak Gurnah: Govts More Hostile To Refugees Now Shehan Karunatilaka says he never expected anything out of The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida. Sample this excerpt from what he says: “While my wife was in a petrol queue for four days and I was taking the kids to school I got this call saying we've been longlisted for the Booker…. I was happy to be included but you don't think the next role of the dice is going to come your way so I didn't even bother… And then you are in the final six and that just means okay I get to take a trip to London and hang out there and do some events, some very scary events actually, sitting live on the BBC with the short list and so on… But it was quite a relaxed evening ‘cause I thought I just have to wear a suit and shake a few hands and then someone else’s name gets read out and then I get to go home and go back to my life, but that's not what happened.” Do listen to the podcast for the entire conversation. Anchor: Jasleen BhallaAudio production: Anil Chauhan